Recent studies predict that most if not a significant percentage of all mobile applications will be free in the next few years. This news will likely lead mobile application developers to focus their attention on how to drive revenue out of these free applications. This can be done either through in-app advertising or by making the application free, but charging the user for added features. While these tactics help the developer drive revenue, it only makes network congestion worse with constant signaling from the app to the app stores and/or advertiser websites.
Furthermore, the increased focus on revenue will distract the developers from focusing on improving the signaling and data transfer efficiency of their applications. Developers are now learning how to take advantage of HTML5 and will be focused on delivering key functionality before they then consider how to make HTML5-based sites or mobile apps more efficient, resulting in excess data transfer and shortening the already problematic battery life of mobile devices such as super phones, smartphones, tablets, phablets, laptops, and other wireless devices/clients.